flight

Earlier this year, Microsoft released Microsoft Flight, a reinvention of its Flight Simulator games of the past. Now the company has reportedly cancelled further development of the game and laid off around 35 staff members involved in the production. Microsoft says that the game will still be available for download for free via its website and on Steam, but that any future content for the game has been scrapped.

This week we've got a human-powered helicopter out there in the world that's flown a larger amount of time than any human-powered helicopter in the history of the world. This device is called the Gamera II, and is essentially a mass of metal, cables, and one human being. There are four rotor blades, the vehicle is 105 feet across, and the whole thing weighs in at just 71 pounds.

NASA this week has delivered the next of several shuttles from their now-complete program, this most recent perhaps being the most famous in its name and history: The Space Shuttle Enterprise. This particular shuttle was never actually flown into space, instead reserved for test missions vital to the success of the NASA shuttle program. This shuttle was named after the popular 1960's Star Trek Original Series ship, the Starship Enterprise, and was greeted at its birth and here at its final resting place by no less than Mr Spock himself!

Microsoft among others have offered flight simulators for the PC for years, but it doesn’t come anywhere close to the real thing. If you’re serious about a genuine flight experience without breaking into a cockpit mid-flight, you could always drop a couple of thousand dollars on the JetMax-737 Flight Sim Console Kit.

Digital delivery systems, Steam in particular, seems to be the center of the PC gaming ecosystem. Want a new release? Just head on over to Steam, and you’re a few clicks away from downloading the game, easily and legally. The hottest new arrival on the Steam store is Microsoft Flight, and to celebrate the launch, Microsoft is releasing new downloadable content for the game, as well as three new planes to fly.

If you were anything like us, you probably liked to waste time at school making paper airplanes, sending them flying through the air to hit designated targets around the room. Or maybe not, because we were fairly terrible at making them. Guess who isn’t terrible at making paper airplanes? Aeronautical engineers. Turns out one group designed and built one just a little bigger than what we’re used to seeing.

US Airways is continuing strong with their commitment to offer entertainment in-flight and let people tweet, Facebook, watch movies on their iPad and more while traveling. Recently US Airways has announced they are expanding their WiFi services with Gogo in-flight WiFi and it will be available to 90% of their domestic fleet.

A man who captivated the blogosphere by claiming to have achieved bird-like flight by using a winged contraption has been proven to be nothing more than a guy with some skills in video special effects. The man, who used the name Jarno Smeets, seemed to have the qualifications necessary to create such a first-of-its-kind invention. His LinkedIn page has a lot of high-end experience and education.

While everyone certainly seemed to love the idea of Concorde, they definitely didn’t like the price that came with flying on one. Massive fuel costs was one of the reasons for its eventual decommission, as well as the sonic boom it produced, rendering it unable to fly over populated areas for fear of upsetting people on the ground. An MIT researcher believes to have found the answer to the problems that plagued the Concorde.

Google has taken its initiative to show flight deals when users search for specific travel itineraries to the next level. The search giant has just added new destinations to its flight search algorithm, including Amsterdam, Buenos Aires, and Venice. This means when users search for specific terms like "JFK - AMS" they will immediately see the best flight deals.